On Morales' Choice of Cabinet

Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced his new cabinet. The choices the indigenous leader of the Socialist Movement party has made are a good indication of the direction in which he hopes to take the country, away from a neo-liberal economy which has done nothing to alleviate the poverty of South America's poorest nation, and towards an economic model which prioritises the needs of the Bolivian poor and the disenfranchised indigenous majority.

"At his inauguration on Sunday, Mr Morales vowed to end what he called the humiliation of the majority Bolivian Indian community. "We have been condemned, humiliated ... and never recognised as human beings," he said. "500 years of campaigning and popular resistance by indigenous people have not been in vain. We are here and we say that we have achieved power to end the injustice, the inequality and oppression that we have lived under."

Here are a few of his appointments:

David Choquehuanca, an Aymara Indian intellectual, as Foriegn Minister.
Walter Villarroel, who comes from a mining cooperative (and wore his hard hat at the ceremony) as mining minister.
Abel Mamani will be in charge of water after he organized protests against the French water company Suez for poor service.
Andres Soliz Rada, an energy analyst and journalist, as Hydrocarbons Minister, who will oversee an increase in state control over Bolivia's vast natural gas fields.